Despite screaming "No surrender!" (or words to that effect) last month, Samsung has had a curious change of heart, and is no longer seeking a sales ban on Apple devices in Europe. What the...?

The South Koreans had claimed that Apple infringed on its standards-essential patents, and as such were keen to have an injunction served in the UK (hey, that's us!), France, Italy and the Netherlands.

However, a statement fired at The Verge reads: “Samsung remains committed to licensing our technologies on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms, and we strongly believe it is better when companies compete fairly in the marketplace, rather than in court.

“In this spirit, Samsung has decided to withdraw our injunction requests against Apple on the basis of our standard essential patents pending in European courts, in the interest of protecting consumer choice."

The news comes just a few days after Judge Lucy Koh ruled that Samsung’s devices won’t be banned in the states.

Koh purred: "Samsung may have cut into Apple's customer base somewhat, but there is no suggestion that Samsung will wipe out Apple's customer base, or force Apple out of the business of making smartphones.”

However, it’s thought that Samsung’s withdrawal is perhaps the result of antitrust concerns. See, under EU law, Samsung is obliged to license its standards-essential patents, rather than wave them around in court in the hopes of a ban.

We’re hoping against hope that we might’ve reached a turning point in this patent-based litigation nonsense, but we ain’t holding our breathing tubes.